Election of the 2018 Host City

This announcement was the culmination of a two-year process, which the IOC has developed over a number of years to ensure that the city that is elected is capable of hosting the Games and that the process is transparent for all involved. Here is a brief recap of how the decision has been reached.

Applicant Cities

On 31 July 2009, the IOC invited the National Olympic Committees (NOCs) to nominate cities in their territories to be Applicant Cities for the 2018 Games. On 16 October 2009, the IOC announced that three cities had been proposed by their NOCs, namely Munich (GER), Annecy (FRA), and PyeongChang (KOR).* These cities all responded to the IOC’s Applicant City Questionnaire, which was then studied by an IOC Working Group before a report was submitted to the IOC Executive Board.

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Candidate Cities

At its meeting on 22 June 2010, the IOC Executive Board selected all three cities as Candidate Cities and they continued to the next part of the bid process. By 11 January 2011, the three bid cities had submitted their candidature files to the IOC, which were based upon the 17 themes of the IOC’s Candidature Procedure and Questionnaire. These files form the basis of each city’s bid for the Games.

Evaluation Commission

On 13 September 2010, President Rogge announced the composition of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the 2018 Games. Led by IOC member Gunilla Lindberg, the Commission is composed of representatives of the Olympic Movement and a number of technical advisors. The Commission visited each of the Candidate Cities on the following dates:

Following these visits, the Commission produced the IOC Evaluation Commission report, which is a technical appraisal of each city’s bid. The report was made public and distributed to the IOC members on 10 May 2011.

Briefing for IOC Members

For the second time, a technical briefing for IOC members with the Candidate Cities was held in Lausanne on 18 and 19 May 2011. This meeting gives the cities and the IOC members the opportunity to discuss the technical elements of their bids over a two day period. This year’s meeting was attended by 89 members and involved a technical briefing from each city, followed by a second day for members to ask any follow-up questions they may have had.

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123rd IOC Session in Durban

The culmination of the bid process was the meeting of the 123rd IOC Session in Durban. The cities had each have 45 minutes to make a presentation to the Session, followed by 15 minutes for questions. The cities presented in the order of drawing of lots, carried out by the IOC Executive Board in December 2009. Following the presentations by the cities, the Chair of the Evaluation Commission, Gunilla Lindberg, addressed the Session on behalf of the Commission.

The Vote Regulations

The eligible IOC members are asked to vote. In each round each participating IOC member may vote for only one city. As per the voting regulations, only those IOC members who are not nationals of countries for which there is a candidate city in a round are permitted to vote. The votes of members not taking part in a round of voting or who abstain, as well as invalid electronic voting entries, are not taken into account in the calculation of the required majority. If, after the first round of voting, no city obtains the absolute majority of the votes cast, as many rounds are held as necessary for a city to obtain such majority. The city receiving the least number of votes leaves the competition. The name of this city is made public straight away and the vote continues. If only two cities remain in contention, the one that obtains the greatest number of votes is elected. The winning city is then announced by the IOC President at the Announcement Ceremony, following which the newly elected NOC and city will sign the Host City Contract.